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US Airways proposes an all-stock deal that would give its shareholders 30 percent of the combined airline and AMR's creditors 70 percent, according to The Wall Street Journal's account. That plan suggests US Airways Chief Executive Doug Parker to run the merged company. (www.bizjournals.com) More...

I do not believe Doug Parker should run the merged company and the American Airlines Company should prevail, not US Airways if the two are merged! US Airways does not have the heritage of American Airlines and TWA.

Heritage has nothing to do with it. Cases in point: Piedmont, PSA, Allegheny, America West. All of which were around before they were eaten up by USA/AWE.

If that were the case, what about Reno Air? They were around before they were eaten up by AAL, yet there is no preservation of Reno Air anywhere. And with the exception of TWA800, TWA is nothing but a museum now in KSTL and KMKC, and barely at those. If AAL were concerned about heritage, they would have also kept KSTL open as a hub in honour of the TWA ops that were there. Right now, KSTL is a regional/puddlehopper haven with SWA dropping in every so often.. not to mention a TWA retro livery, but AAL hasn't made a drastic change to their livery since the early 2000s when they went from a white base to totally metal.

BTW.. you do realize that AAL is bankrupt, right? Survival right now for them is a bit more important than heritage, and if they want to survive they'll need to live by the terms they come up with in this merger. And seeing that both airlines are in the wars right now, 70/30 is not bad for AAL. What they should do is combine the boards and dole that out in a way that is fair to both airlines.

Actually there are three things that need to be left behind....American Heritage, American Culture and American Executives, all which have played a role in their current situation. While USAir may not be much better, they are not in Chapter 11 and do seem to be willing to work with their unions. The paint job or the lack of it are the least of the worries. American needs to shed its "politically correct" Boardroom and opt for talent and ability and this is by far the best way to get that done.

Old Friend, I will just agreee to disagree with you here on a couple of points. Tommy Horton inherited that can of worms and if they had listened to him sooner, this would have already been done or never have gotten to this point.U.S. is not in Bankruptcy but was when they came to America West. Doug Parker cannot work with his Unions or he would have had his Pilots merged long ago. They are still operating under separate agreements and he has been there about 12 years now. And lastly, just from a personal standpoint, if he was on fire in my driveway, I wouldn't walk out there and piss on him to put him out. Have a nice evening my friend.

Love it...I knew I could stir you up with that post. In fact neither company has any kind of human relations with their employees, but American did lose some very smart people knowledgeable about the sharp end of the business to be replaced by gender correct Mail Order MBA yesman and yeswoman type suits. Healthcare is full of these types who can read a spread sheet but don't know a colon from a cranium...explaining why they often have one inserted in the other.

If American had been any sort of a prize, there would have been more than the next company up the dreg ladder bidding for an organization that has a lot of potential value, at least in portions of it. Dominant positions in warm weather MIA and DFW have to have significant return on the North South routes.

The Naval version taught to me by my WWII vet captain on HMCS Preserver is "I wouldn't piss in his ear if his brain was on fire...unlikely without a brain." (insert appropriate adjective before the word "brain").

Well, BA and DAL wer looking at it but rumors I am hearing is that the only reason they backed off was the bankruptcy, that they wanted to see what it looked like after it emegered independent. I still think it will and remain so for awhile. I feel that these 2 are still there and that Parker is just posturing in order to have a decent position. My personal opinion is that BA would be the best as it would primarily be a cash infusion, keeping present management bsically. If they could swing it, I think it would be the better for the stockholders, as the US deal is an all stock thing and as someone said here, would just be from the next carrier on the dreg ladder.

True, but DAL would have to dump some of the most profitable services for anti-trust reasons and BA is limited as to foreign ownership restrictions at 25% thus ending up as a cash infusion with no control over how it is used. My gut feeling on DAL is they took a couple of big gulps over the past few years and are just now swallowing them, rationalizing their asset distribution and looking at their debt structure (gobbling up the MD-90s to preserve capital). As the value of the value of the dollar tanks, this is probably a very smart hedge.

Dumping the services needed to overcome anti-trust might not be all that easy given the limited market available to purchase them and those same foreign ownership regulations. They end up losing their shirts at a fire sale. Any purchaser would know they have them over a barrel to make the larger deal go and may themselves get into the same situation with their own existing services.

I agree on Parker, but I hope this horribly bad idea doesn't get far enough along that such a question needs to be answered. I've only been flying American since August, but I'm enjoying them enough that I'm already gold with them. They won me over from USAirways. USAIRWAYS $@# (is not good)!

As I said in several earlier posts, I think this is wishful thinking on Doug Parker's part. If you get into a couple of the other articles, you will find that it ain't all peaches and cream amongst the stockholders. He can't even fully bring his flight crews under a merged contract after all these years; how does he expect to get into something the size of AA. I still feel that Tom Horton will bring AA out as an independent, with guns blazing and pointed at Doug Parker. Trust me when I say there is a bunch left unsaid about him.

American should emerge from bankruptcy protection as a stand alone company or, better yet, acquire US Airways and let AA manage the cmbined company, Doug Parker still has not successfully merged the pilot contracts from his AmericaWest merger 7 years ago! American has a stronger history and is a much better airline from the customers' perspective than US Air will ever be.

For branding and marketing purposes the larger more well known name survives the merger, it has nothing to do with who bought whom. Maybe their call sign will be Cactus instead of American, that is up to the FAA to decide.

I can't believe that what was once called agony airways is going to be one of the largest airlines in the world. Based on the livery of the B777ER delivered recently I would think the merger is a done deal. The livery on the lane is very close to US Airways current livery. All that would be needed would be to change the name and repaint the tail.

If this goes through, AWE will definitely leave Star Alliance to be absorbed into OneWorld. The question now is how upset the shareholders and employees of America West will be, now that they will see their shares and stake in the airline further diluted..

yeah? imagine how bad the pilots are gonna get screwed. management already stole most of their pensions already. Soon there wont be anything left to steal, then they'll have to start ripping off the customer.

And flight attendants don't? Mechanics don't? their unions don't? A lot of people have made their careers doing that. If I remember correctly, there was a man who just recently retired after 63 *years* as a flight attendant. If that isn't 'invested' into an airline, and more than a pilot, I might add, as they face mandatory retirement at an earlier age than this flight attendant, I don't know what is.

It takes more than just a pilot to fly a plane. Like the above, please don't be so narrow-minded, as everyone takes a hit here. If you don't believe that, Ask former TWA, Trans Caribbean, Capitol, and AOA employees. See how much of a hit they took.